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by daughterofvalkyries



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Brief mentions of blood and violence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 18:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12138444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughterofvalkyries/pseuds/daughterofvalkyries
Summary: "Through the rules, the memories and the wounds, we were learning to grow back. Together, just like it had started."Short one-shot about after the Games.





	Back to the start

Cato and I, like all alike us, knew what we signed in for when we started our training. I was there for the pride and the prize and the nod of approval from my mother. Soon it became an addiction, the knife held in my hand like a continuation of it and the warm sweat on my forehead. Cato wouldn't have been a Career if it wasn't for his parent´s wishes, but he was perfect for the role. Not only was he physically fit, the dream of any Mentor, but his family also had a long term relationship with the Games: five volunteers, two Victors. He grew up knowing he would be the next to bear the weight of the crown.

  
The consequences were not unknown to us. Blood is still blood no matter how much gold you paint with; but we still craved for it, the adrenaline and the idea of being the protagonists of a national adventure. Twenty four in the arena and only one comes out. You make it and your name is written in the stars, marked on the tongues of your people for centuries. The risk of dying was always present in the back of my mind, a whisper or a snare, but it came from within, right from the place where all the questions hid. It was my role in society, my mother explained me in my first day in the Academy. Everyone has a role to fulfil, a piece of themselves to offer in return for everything that is given to them, their houses, their jobs, their food, their safety, even their lives. Some people´s work is to dedicate their lives to the Games, to practice and sweat and bleed until their bones are made of iron and blood is the water they drink. It doesn't matter if you like it and, once you're in, you will do anything not to be out.

  
Cato was the perfect war machine. He was well built and angry like they like it. A dog bred and fed for the hunt. However, once we left the arena, both barely alive, his anger changed its target. _I´ll kill them_. The desire remained the same, but the “them” he referred to were not dead tributes whose bodies were being sent home in wooden caskets with mournful songs. The anger burned in my chest too, but it was safer to keep it silent. First, they had sent us together, which had never been predicted, and then they had tried to fool us, making us believe we could both win, only to change the rules all over again. The first sign of anger was shown in those last moments, both blades pressed on each other's necks. I had lied to myself until then, pretending there was a way to do it, to kill him and live with it. Once they had given me the hope of going back home with Cato, they couldn't take it from me. He felt the same and it was visible in the determination in his eyes. We were going back together, alive or not. It worked out, in the end, but the life after the Games was a simple continuation of them. You leave the arena and the rules adapt to your most recent situation, but you're never in control. When they didn´t summon us to the Capitol, the directions would come in written form, wrapped around a silky envelope with a ribbon. The nightmares would take us back to the arena, to the fire and the mutts and the rock that forever bruised my cheek. Cato suffered the most with the nightmares, no matter how well he pretended. I could feel him shift under the sheets, his whole body tense and respiration heavy. But we had won, two crowns instead of one. Through the rules and the memories and the wounds, we were learning to grow back. _Together_ , just like it had all started.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I hope you enjoyed this piece of my work. I found it today in my drafts and thought it would be good to post it, even if it´s very small and just a brief insight into their lives after the Games through Clove´s eyes. Let me know if you liked this short work and I hope that there are still people fangirling over Clato out there.  
> Thank you :)


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